[spectre] Launch of Mapchester at Futuresonic 2006

[Drew Hemment]

ANNOUNCING THE LAUNCH OF
MAPCHESTER (BETA)

http://www.futuresonic.com/mapchester

Mapchester is a test-case for how a city could be mapped and a guide  
for a festival created on collaborative and open principles. It is a  
collaborative 'wikimap' project, generated and maintained by users in  
the same way as Wikipedia. Driven by OpenStreetMap.org, Mapchester  
offers a new type of Manchester map - produced by collective,  
community effort and completely free of traditional copyright  
restrictions on usage.

Mapchester is currently at the Beta stage of development and at this  
time works with limited functionally. To make full use of the search  
and map linking functions the Map should be viewed using Internet  
Explorer only. As the Mapchester project evolves, cross platform  
usability will be incorporated. With the Artefact still in the early  
stages of development any thoughts or feedback concerning  
funtionallity and interaction would be very much welcomed. Email  
mapchester at futuresonic.com.

About Mapchester

The inaugural Mapping Weekend brought together a wide array of  
different people, transforming them into map hackers and citizen  
cartographers: people who walked / cycled / drove / bussed /  
trained / skated the city streets recording GPS tracks and road  
names. These tracks were then uploaded to the OpenStreetMap database  
and edited into coherent map features.

 From this data, a Manchester map has been created for Futuresonic  
2006 - presented as a test-case for producing a usable, functioning  
city map and festival guide via this open source, collaborative  
approach.

Though still in its infancy, at an experimental stage with many  
glitches, the Mapchester online map includes the functionality that  
can be seen in commercial digital maps, and also features calendring  
tools. Not only static features such as venues and landmarks appear,  
but also time-based events. By scrolling across the time bar at the  
bottom of the screen, club nights, live music gigs, exhibition  
openings and other festival happenings appear and disappear across  
the city.

The cumulative result is a picture of a weekend in the life of  
Manchester, a map of events taking place across the city, a snapshot  
of its musical and creative culture.

This first version is designed to be "good enough" to function as a  
festival city guide. Please be aware that this beta version may have  
some errors, and is not appropriate for all uses. People using this  
map do so at their own risk.

Lead team: Graham Bowden, Steve Coast, Martin Dodge, Jeff Flanagan,  
Andrew Forbes, Karen Gaskill, Drew Hemment, Mick Lockwood, Mikel  
Maron, Rod Martin, Alan Murphy, Chris Perkins, Andy Robinson, Ben  
Russell.

Mapchester mappers: Louise Bennett, C Boyko, Sarah Burns, Emily  
Campbell, Daniel Catt, David Coast, Steve Coast, Ben Cowburn, Damian  
Doyle, C Ekweozor, Stephen Elves, Ava Fatah, Anne Hill Fernie, Karen  
Gaskill, Lucy Gibson, Victor Gonzalcz, Zoe Goslyn, Steve Goslyn, Ian  
Harford, Conor Hartnett, Drew Hemment, Karl Hennermann, Alex Hough,  
Shreena Joshi, G Knox, Giacomo Lacava, Mick Lockwood, Karyna Luna,  
Gavin Macdonald, L Mackay, Cristina Porro, Ian Pattinson, Chris  
Perkins, Sam Prince, Lilesh Prodham, Andy Robinson, Jaime Solis,  
Mario Solis, Ian Stewart, Anna Thomson, David Tunbridge, Martin  
Turner, A Wilson.

http://www.futuresonic.com